The Spurs manager is a strange one when it comes to dishing out the praise for players in public. He's all about the team, the collective, and he's not about to big up anyone over the group.

Only he does, but only for certain players - those in his circle of trust, those who work hard and wait patiently for their chances and those who have been criticised.

Ask him about players outside that group and it's trickier to get much in the way of gushing praise.

Often those outsiders are those who have perhaps upset Pochettino in some way or fallen from grace in his eyes - see Toby Alderweireld and Danny Rose as examples last season and Vincent Janssen pretty much from a couple of months after his signing the previous campaign.

Lucas is in a different category. For the Brazilian, the message has always been that he must bring more to the team, work harder off the ball and even this week ahead of the match at Old Trafford Pochettino said that the midfielder still needs to prove himself.

The player impressed on the club's pre-season tour to the USA but getting any praise for him from the Spurs boss was like getting blood from a stone.

There is a theory that perhaps the 26-year-old was not a player who was high on Pochettino's wish list but the move was made with PSG because it represented a good deal.

Following the Brazilian's two-goal salvo against Manchester United and his match-winning performance it was the perfect time for Pochettino to shoot down that suggestion when football.london asked him if Lucas had finally proved himself to the Spurs boss.

Instead he chose to praise those who had engineered the transfer and his words seemed carefully chosen to reflect that Lucas will get praise from elsewhere now in public - not necessarily from him - and "today" Lucas deserved credit.

Here's his answer in full.

"Yes, he is going to receive much praise now. But for me I want to mention our chief scout Steve Hitchen and all the people that worked with him, because they advised to sign him," he said.

"When the people sometimes criticise because always it is tough now, I think I need to say well done, because today's performance from Lucas Moura, for the people that advised and feel responsible too, they need to be praised too. That is why I want to congratulate them. There are always people who are working behind [the scenes] and it was a fantastic job because today I think Lucas deserves a lot of credit."

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Pochettino was pressed again about the Brazilian and his development and he opened up slightly more with the praise this time.

"It's easy to say now it was fantastic the improvement. Of course that is another example that when the player arrives in the middle of the season it's not easy to get them to good performances," he said.

"It's not easy to explain to you or our fans that we need patience and to wait to get the best from our players, after a pre-season and to have the possibility to show their quality.

"He is showing his quality. I am so happy, he's a great guy and he brought the team different skills, different alternatives and the most important thing is to find a different place to how he was finding it in Paris last year. I think it's to find the best place to help him to perform in the way that we want."

Lucas Moura celebrates his first goal against Manchester United at Old Trafford (Image: OLI SCARFF/AFP/Getty Images)

Of course it needs to be reiterated that this is only about public praise and the Spurs manager is likely to be giving Lucas a big pat on the back behind the scenes.

Pochettino sets high standards for himself and those around him and if this is the kind of performance his methods were aiming for then it paid off in style at Old Trafford.

Lucas was superb. It wasn't just his goals, it was his work rate and pace that caused Manchester United no end of problems.

When the Brazilian first turned up at Tottenham football.london was told that Pochettino saw Lucas as a potential striker to provide back-up to Harry Kane, despite many believing him to be more of a conventional winger.

With three goals in his first three games and the clinical nature of his finishing, Lucas is proving his manager's thinking to be spot on and he's got plenty more to give.

The new 4-3-3 formation suits him as much as it does Dele Alli and it can also become a front two when necessary with Lucas supporting Kane and there's every indication that the Brazilian will weigh in with his share of goals for the team this season.

Wingers have proved to be the new strikers in recent years, with Mo Salah dazzling for Liverpool last season. Can Lucas keep up this early promise and make his own mark on the Premier League? If he has even half the season the Egyptian did then Spurs fans will be delighted.

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